1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a computer-readable medium.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, an image forming system in which a data processing apparatus, such as a personal computer (PC), including an installed printer driver therein controls an image forming apparatus through a communication network, such as a local area network (LAN), has become widely used.
Moreover, Microsoft Corporation announced an electronic document standard called as an extensible mark language (XML) paper specification (XPS) standard at the end of 2006. A file of an electronic document in conformity to the XPS standard (hereinafter referred to as an XPS file) includes font data, image data, text data, and the like, and is generated by performing the zone improvement plan (ZIP) compression of these data files (an XML file, an image file, and the like). That is, an XPS file is a ZIP compression file.
The data processing apparatus performs the ZIP compression of an XML file and an image file to generate an XPS file, and transmits the generated XPS file to the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus receives the XPS file, and then temporarily spools the file into a storage medium (such as a memory and a hard disk). The image forming apparatus then reads the XPS file from the storage medium and executes the ZIP decompression of the XPS file. Then, the image forming apparatus spools the file data subjected to the ZIP decompression into the storage medium again. The image forming apparatus then reads the file data subjected to the ZIP decompression from the storage medium to perform image forming processing.
Moreover, a technique to change the compression rate of print data by judging from a memory capacity of a memory at the time of storing the print data into the memory for reprinting was disclosed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. Hei 11-179977).
Now, because the image forming apparatus cannot know the data size of the XPS file at the start of receiving the XPS file, the image forming apparatus will spool the XPS file into a predetermined storage medium.
The XPS file has been consequently stored in a storage medium (for example, a memory) that has a fast access speed but an insufficient storage capacity, and a situation in which the storage capacity runs short on the way to receiving the XPS file has occurred. In this case, the image forming apparatus receives the XPS file from the beginning again to store the file data in another storage medium (for example, a hard disk) having a larger storage capacity. Consequently, a delay of the image forming processing results.
Moreover, although there is a storage medium (for example, a memory) having a sufficient storage capacity to store the XPS file and having a fast access speed, the image forming apparatus stores the XPS file into a storage medium (for example, a hard disk) having a slow access speed, and consequently a delay of the image forming processing results.
Moreover, if the data size of the XPS file is too large and it is impossible to store the file in any storage media equipped in the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus continues to receive the XPS file until the storage capacity overflows. At the time point when the storage capacity overflows, the error is detected, and the effect of the overflow is displayed. Consequently, a loss of user's time results.